Michael Bay’s ‘Transformers 4’ May Orbit Space and Don’t Call It a Reboot

For better or worse (eh, probably more of the latter), Michael Bay‘s Transformers franchise has had quite the impact on Hollywood. It’s given mostly talentless models careers, made Paramount billions of dollars and made studios (for a brief moment) believe that Hasbro properties could be made into worthwhile movies. Looking at the future of the series, we’re due for a whole new trilogy, heading in a new direction and now more details have been revealed.

We already know Bay will be helming this fourth entry and he’s stated it’s his last (not to be confused when he said that during the Dark of the Moon as well). Speaking with the LA Times as he stopped by Universal Studios’ new Hollywood Transformers ride, he said that this one will not be a reboot. Check out his quote below.

It’s not a reboot, that’s maybe the wrong word. I don’t want to say reboot because then people will think we’re doing a Spider-Man and starting from the beginning. We’re not. We’re taking the story that you’ve seen — the story we’ve told in three movies already — and we’re taking it in a new direction. But we’re leaving those three as the history. It all still counts. I met with the writer before I went off to do ‘Pain and Gain’ and we talked about a bunch of ideas. We let that simmer for a bit. He’s been thinking about stuff and now we’re getting back together next week to see what we’ve got and to see if it gels.

He also said that this fourth film could see the crew head to space, but he doesn’t “want to go too sci-fi.” He added, “I still want to keep it grounded. That’s what works in these movies, that’s what makes it accessible.” Throwing in a ton of human characters with a varied amount of ridiculous moments doesn’t necessarily make this writer convinced that’s “grounded,” but I’ll let the blockbuster overlord have his moment.

His recently wrapped crime drama Pain & Gain, with Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson, might be rubbing off on him as well. With that film produced on Bay’s smallest budget yet, he said that he also wants to drop the budget off this fourth movie by about $30 million, which put a bit over $160 million. With no news of production yet, I only imagine that will balloon, but for now check out his remaining quote below, which details his plans for a new directing contender.

Here’s the thing, it’s tough to find someone who’s done these kind of movies and to have the complication of creating the new stuff that needs to be in this movie – not just characters but a new type of action, I hope – and that’s a lot for someone new to bite off. And so after this one I will leave it in the best hands possible. That’s the plan.